Caster Mod for pre 73

[hewittca]

I'm bringing back this thread because I have now test driven my truck and I am not entirely happy with how it steers. Just to refresh, I moved my lower arms forward 3/4" and have a manual steering box. Before the caster mod, the steering was definitely firm at low speed but manageable. Now, with the mod, low speed turning is noticeably firmer. It is quite difficult to make a right hand turn out of my driveway without going into the opposite lane. Return to center may be marginally better, but it didn't really stand out as an improvement to me. At speed, I will say that the truck does track nice and straight with virtually no needed input in the wheel to keep it that way. If I need to steer more than 45 degrees on the wheel, however, the steering starts to get really heavy and almost unresponsive. After the first drive I was already planning out a power steering swap. In the meantime, I am wondering if it's worth it to back out some of my caster either through shims or redrilling a new index hole at 1/2".

One other thing I noticed while driving is that my springs are rubbing the front edge of the cavity where they reside in the crossmember. This is due to the bottom of the spring moving forward 3/4" with the arm. Did anyone else have this problem, and if so what did you do to resolve it?